How is Hermes linked to Odin?

Question

The Wikipedia article on Hermes says Odin is his Norse equivalent.

Can anyone expand on that?

Answer 1

If we want to be exact, Hermes is not linked directly to Odin. His Roman equivalent Mercury is.

The first time such a link is made is in Tacitus' Germania, where he in the ninth book states that

Mercury is the deity whom they chiefly worship, and on certain days they deem it right to sacrifice to him even with human victims.

Translation: Alfred John Church and William Jackson Brodribb

Human sacrifice is something that is very much linked with Odin in the later sources. Further evidence is provided through the names of the week in some of the Germanic languages, where the Roman Dies Mercurii corresponds to Wednesday, or mainland Scandinavian onsdag (The English name is derived from the spelling "Wodan").

Further attestation of the identification is through Paulus Diaconus, 8th century historian of the Lombards, who explicitly identifies Wodan with Mercury. The same identification also appears in Anglo-Saxon traditions about the missionary Columbanus.

Thus far about the source for the identification. Now for how it came about.

I don't believe Mercury was a particularly bloodthirsty god, and neither that he was the most prominent of the Roman pantheon, so obviously the identification is based on other things than what Tacitus says - it makes sense that he would focus on differences.

Instead, it seems it was several of Odin's other features that led to the identification. His wanderings have already been mentioned in comments above. Furthermore, both Odin and Mercury held some sway over the dead: Mercury acted as a psychopomp, or escort of the newly departed to the afterlife, while Odin stood to receive half of the dead that were deemed worthy (the other half wet to Freya). Furthermore, Mercury had poetry, divination and trickery as part of his domain, which are very good fits for Odin. Thus, even if the identification might seem surprising, the two gods actually have rather a lot in common (though we can not be exactly sure if not Odin picked up some of Mercury's traits along the way).

Sources

Most of the above is from, or corroborated by Gro Steinsland, Fornnordisk religion. The part about Paulus Diaconus I found in the notes of N.E. Hammarstedts translation into Swedish of Germania, from 1921, which I've also used to check the translation above.

Answer 2

This link was made first time by Tacitus (Germania). They are similar in some aspects, which can lead to confusion, like in the question of the two relates to the figure of the hermit (wanderer, lord of the ways) and luck-chance in games, for example.

Other issue that could lead us to this confusion is the question of the days of the week. The word Wednesday in English and German is spoken Wednesday, which translates from the old German means "Wuodan Day", in turn as it was said, Wuodan was the name of Odin given by the Germans, that means "Day of Odin". On the other Hand, in other languages (spanish, for instance), Wedsnesday is "Mercury", which was syncretized in the figure of Hermes-Mercury (from greek and roman mythology).

We have to take in account the culture of this people. So, if we observe from the greek side, the aspects of the Odin as conduits of souls, we can relate to Hermes. If we look from other perspective we can think in Mercury. If the viking people used to pray for Odin in War, we can relate with Ares from a greek perspective and so on... so, there is many things too consider.

PS: Hermes was grandson of Kronos (which carries the figure of the Hermit too), so Hermes can inherit characteristics of his 'past blood', this helps to mark the link between (Kronos-)Odin-Hermes once again. Hope it Helps! If you need source from any of this let me know.